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NEW FOR WEDNESDAY: New Ocean City Boat Ramp Construction Could Start Soon

OCEAN CITY – Soon enough a new public access boat ramp will be constructed at 64th Street in Ocean City as the designs have been completed and the city is reviewing bids for the project.

This week the Town of Ocean City received seven offers to construct a new boat ramp and trailer parking facility at 64th Street.

The project is expected to consist of construction of a two-lane boat ramp, channel dredging for ramp access, a 50-space trailer parking area and a small comfort station. The project is being funded through a partnership between the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Waterway Improvement Program (DNR-WIP) and the Town of Ocean City.

The project was brought forward to relieve congestion at a current city-operated single lane public boat ramp in the Little Salisbury neighborhood as well as increase access to the coastal bays and the Atlantic Ocean.

The process began as recognizing 64th Street as the best location for the new boat ramp because it is surrounded by commercial or governmental uses and located close to the center of Ocean City.

Once 64th Street was identified as the best location for the boat ramp an adjacent property to the site was purchased for trailer parking and expansion of the nearby Public Works facility.

The city then appropriated funds for its share of the new boat ramp and in May the remaining funds, which is $815,000, was received from the DNR.

City Engineer Terry McGean explained when the city borrowed money to purchase the adjacent property on 64th Street for trailer parking, at the same time $750,000 was borrowed to cover the city’s share of the project.

“DNR will pay 100 percent of the dredging of the channel into the new 64th Street boat ramp, they will pay a 50 percent of the site development cost to put the trailer parking in there, we have to pay for the other half of that and 100 percent of the construction of the ramp itself,” McGean said.

The city has completed a conceptual design for a single-lane and a two-lane boat ramp with parking at the location and DNR-WIP completed bathymetric surveys in order to estimate dredging requirements.

The council voted unanimously to accept the seven bids and remand them to staff for review.